Washington pedophile ban loses legal muster

WASHINGTON -- The issue couldn't be more cut-and-dry for Washington Borough resident Gina Appleby -- two convicted child molesters, who recently moved into town near a local park and school making them in violation of municipal law, should be forced to relocate.

To the dismay of Appleby and other residents, borough officials said the issue has become anything but cut-and-dry because of a recent court ruling declaring ordinances establishing pedophile-free zones invalid.

The issue was discussed in detail during Tuesday's Borough Council meeting when Appleby presented information from the New Jersey State Police Sex Offender Internet Registry showing that two convicted sex offenders -- Teddy Cook and Ralph Klingerman -- had moved into town at locations within the buffer zones on East Washington and South Lincoln avenues.

Borough Attorney Richard Cushing said a 2006 borough ordinance banning convicted sex offenders from residing within 3,000 feet of schools, parks, playgrounds and daycare centers has lost legal muster due to a Superior Court ruling earlier in the year invalidating a similar measure adopted by Galloway Township in southern New Jersey.

Judge Valerie Armstrong ruled the municipality did not have the jurisdiction to create buffer zones since the state Legislature had already acted in the matter by passing Megan's Law, which requires convicted sex offenders to register with authorities when changing addresses and that their addresses be verified regularly by authorities.

Cushing said perhaps the best hope of returning legal muster to the borough's ordinance is proposed state legislation sponsored by local Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow to expand the provisions of Megan's Law. Under Karrow's bill, all municipalities would have the ability to adopt pedophile-free zones around areas frequented by children. The bill also would require municipal governing bodies, in addition to the authorities, be notified when a sex offender moves into a municipality.

"There are people out there who are dangerous, and the State Legislature needs to give municipalities the tools to address these situations," Cushing said.

Conflicting perspectives

The issue of whether convicted pedophiles should be banned from residing near schools and other locations frequented by children has been a hot-button legal topic in recent years.
The American Center for Law and Justice is representing Galloway Township in an appeal of the Superior Court banning its pedophile-free zone.

"The decision by Judge Armstrong is flawed on many levels," said Vincent McCarthy, a senior attorney with the American Center for Law and Justice. "Galloway's ordinances are in general agreement with New Jersey law. To say that a municipality cannot act because the state has acted around similar issues is faulty reasoning. A municipality has a right and duty to act on behalf of its children if it believes the state's action is insufficient, as long as the municipality's ordinance does not conflict with state law.

"The people of New Jersey understand that the rights of innocent should not be sacrificed to accommodate the desires of convicted sex offenders. The children of New Jersey deserve better than Judge Armstrong's ruling."

Meanwhile, groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union claim ordinances establishing pedophile-free zones do more harm than good. In a press release posted on the New Jersey ACLU Web site, Executive Director Deborah Jacobs said these ordinances not only violate a person's constitutional right to choose where to reside, they also are ineffective.

"The vast majority of sex offenses are committed by trusted adults -- family members, friends, clergy -- and go unreported because of manipulation of the victims, unconscionable decisions by other adults, or both," she said. "Because the most common type of sex crime so often goes unreported, most sex offenders never become part of the criminal justice system and therefore are not affected by Megan's Law or banishment zone laws. As a result, these laws give the public a false sense of security, letting us believe that sex offenders have been exiled from their neighborhood, or that if a sex offender does live nearby, we will receive notification of his presence. If we believe that, we are fooling ourselves and, worse, doing our children a disservice. Sex offenders live in every American community, and children need supervision no matter what.

"Laws like banishment zone ordinances actually make us less safe, as they impede offender rehabilitation and thereby increase the likelihood of re-offense. People who transition from prison into society face countless challenges, and most have very limited resources, financial or otherwise. People who want to lead law-abiding lives after serving a prison sentence need to establish stability in their homes, jobs and families. Those are difficult things to achieve, but add to this the consequences of Megan's Law and limits to where offenders can live, and few have hope of succeeding. Indeed, the fear of the stigma of Megan's Law can force offenders underground, out of the watchful eye of police and parole officers."